Norman Tweed Whitaker was born in Philadelphia. He was taught to play chess by his father at age 14, and rapidly became one of America's brightest new talents. He was scheduled to play a match for the U.S. Chess Championship with Frank James Marshall, but failed to appear. He won the 1st National Chess Federation Congress in 1927 at Kalamazoo, Michigan, ahead of teenage prodigy Samuel Reshevsky, and tied for first in the Western Championships at San Francisco, 1923 (with Stasch Mlotkowski) and Chicago, 1930 (with Samuel D Factor).

Whitaker gained notoriety during the 1932 Lindbergh kidnapping. He was involved in a scheme to swindle $104,000 from a wealthy heiress by claiming to be in contact with the kidnappers. Whitaker and his partner were arrested and convicted.

After his parole, Whitaker again became a full time chess player. For several years he was one of the most active players in America and Europe. He played in many US Opens with good results. FIDE awarded him the title of International Master in 1965.

jerseybob: Yes, back on Whitaker: Not to paint with too broad a brush, but, what is it about getting a legal education that seemingly emboldens some people to think they can break the law, rather than UPHOLD it, as officers of the court should do?

Ron: < jerseybob: Yes, back on Whitaker: Not to paint with too broad a brush, but, what is it about getting a legal education that seemingly emboldens some people to think they can break the law, rather than UPHOLD it, as officers of the court should do? >

Those with legal education are human beings like anyone else. To be sure, there are examples of them breaking the law, but do you have any stats showing that the percentage of them breaking the law is higher than the general population?
On a related note, the number of aldermen in my hometown of Chicago being convicted must set some sort of record.

wordfunph: lifted from Chess Life & Review August 1975 by James E. Gates:

On IM Norman Whitaker: One of the stories about him concerned a U.S. Correspondence Championship before World War II. A friend of his, who was competing in the tournament suddenly died. His widow needed money, and this gave Norman the idea of finishing his friend's games without letting anyone know. Whitaker wound up winning the tournament --- the first, won by a dead man!

Phony Benoni: Another extraordinary incident from the life of Norman Tweed Whitaker, from a report on the Western Championship in the November 1921 "American Chess Bulletin". The narrator is tournament referee Hermann Helms:

<"The time limit, which was that in vogue at most of the leading clubs, namely 20 moves an hour straight, was found, every now and then, to be a bit too fast for some of the competitors and, on a number of occasions, the referee was busy watching the final seconds of the hour being ticked off by the clock. There was a number of very narrow escapes and notably that of Hahlbohm in his game with Whitaker in the second round. This was one of the most interesting incidents of the tournament. Very much like a runner making for the plate in a baseball game, Hahlbohm was declared "safe" at the end of the first hour. Whitaker, under the impression that the hour had been exceeded, demurred, but his claim was diallowed.

"Undismayed by the adverse decision, however, he induced his opponent the following day to consent to a replay of the game from the 21st move--somewhat unusual, to say the least, but agreed to by the officials only after the unanimous consent of all the players had been obtained in the interests of harmony. The ending was played a second time at the first opportunity with the result that Hahlbohm, extricating himself cleverly from what appeared to be dangerous complications, won even more quickly.

After this, Whitaker had no reason to dispute that he had been doubly and fairly beaten, and this he acknowledged manfully. In view of the fact that he thus scored losses in the first two rounds, his feat of finishing in fourth place must be regarded as one of the best performances of the congress.">

Joshka: Norman spent time with Fischer during the famous Log Cabin tour thru the South and eventually thru to Cuba. Brady talks about Norman being the only one from the club to hold an even score with Bobby! Does Hilbert give any account from Norman during his time playing Bobby and spending time with him traveling? thanks in advance!!

ljfyffe: <"In January 1974 Whitaker traveled to Augusta,
Georgia, and managed to find a way to attend the opening banquet of thr Korchnoi - Mecking Quarter Final Candidates match for the right to play then-world championship Bobby Fischer.
Whitaker had known Fischer in the 1950's, even traveling with Fischer to Cuba, where at Havana and other stops Whitaker played board one to Fischer's board two for the Log Cabin chess club team. Bill Parrish, a friend who attended the Korchnoi-Mecking match with Whitaker, was surprised that Whitaker had finagled front row seats for the contest."> JohnHilbert, Writings In Chess History, 2012.

wrap99: I recall from the tremendous bio Shady Side that NTW once played a game vs a young Jon Frankel in which he was busted but refused to move and just left the board for the clock to run down. Am I remembering rightly (I gave away a first edition of Shady Side) and can we get the game here?

NOTE: You need to pick a username and password to post a reply.
Getting your account takes less than a minute, totally anonymous,
and 100% free--plus, it
entitles you to features otherwise unavailable.
Pick your username now and join the chessgames community!
If you already have an account, you should
login now.

Please observe our posting guidelines:

No obscene, racist, sexist, or profane language.

No spamming, advertising, or duplicating posts.

No personal attacks against other members.

Nothing in violation of United States law.

No posting personal information of members.

See something that violates our rules? Blow the whistle and inform an administrator.

NOTE: Keep all discussion on the topic of this page.
This forum is for this specific player and nothing else. If you want to discuss chess in general, or
this site, you might try the Kibitzer's Café.

Messages
posted by Chessgames members do not necessarily represent the views of Chessgames.com, its employees, or sponsors.